Education
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 4 months ago)
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Robert Halfon
I also think that it is important that we do not paint just a partial picture. We should look at the 10% uplift in T-level funding, the £300 million that we are spending on institutes of technology, the £115 million spending on higher technical qualifications, which are now being taught in more than 70 institutions, the £2.7 billion that we will be spending on apprenticeships by 2025, the up to £500 million that is being spent on Multiply, and the many millions of pounds being spent on boot camps. Billions and billions of pounds are being spent on skills, which is absolutely right.
[Official Report, 5 July 2023, Vol. 735, c. 893.]
Letter of correction from the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, the right hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon).
An error has been identified in my response to my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr Walker). The correct response should have been:
Robert Halfon
I also think that it is important that we do not paint just a partial picture. We should look at the 10% uplift in T-level funding, the £300 million that we are spending on institutes of technology, the £115 million spending on higher technical qualifications, which are now being taught in more than 70 institutions, the £2.7 billion that we will be investing in apprenticeships by 2025, the up to £500 million that is being spent on Multiply, and the many millions of pounds being spent on boot camps. Billions and billions of pounds are being spent on skills, which is absolutely right.
Robert Halfon
The hon. Member for Twickenham mentioned the apprenticeship budget. We spent 99% of the apprenticeship budget, and let us not forget that we send hundreds of millions to the devolved authority, so the levy is being used.
[Official Report, 5 July 2023, Vol. 735, c. 896.]
Letter of correction from the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, the right hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon).
An error has been identified in my response to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson). The correct response should have been:
Robert Halfon
The hon. Member for Twickenham mentioned the apprenticeship budget. We spent 99% of the apprenticeship budget, and let us not forget that we send hundreds of millions to the devolved Administrations, so the levy is being used.
Draft Industrial Training Levy (Engineering Construction Industry Training Board) Order 2023
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 4 months ago)
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The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Industrial Training Levy (Engineering Construction Industry Training Board) Order 2023.
It is an honour to serve under you, Mr Sharma. The draft levy Order we are here to discuss is for the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board, the skills, standards and qualifications body for the engineering construction workforce of Great Britain. That is not to be confused with the Construction Industry Training Board, otherwise known as the CITB, which is a different industrial training board that is not under discussion today.
The engineering construction industry consists of contracting companies and their supply chain that collectively are responsible for designing, building, maintaining, repairing and decommissioning some of the UK’s most critical national infrastructure, such as conventional and renewable power generation and oil and gas, as well as sectors such as water treatment, pharmaceuticals, food processing, steel and cement. The industry is core to building the infrastructure needed to power the economy and grow our energy independence.
When I spoke at last month’s The Times Education Summit, I set out how I frame the links between education and life outcomes in the field of work through a “ladder of opportunity”. A critical rung on that ladder focuses on technical education and training to meet the needs of employers. That is not just for young people at the start of their career history, but about improving attainment in adult skills across the country and reversing declining participation in adult learning and the workforce. We must strive to ensure that such a ladder is metaphorically available to all, not drawn up, and the drawbridge to life-changing education is not closed due to background or age. Everyone must be able to access the education and skills opportunities that lead to good job outcomes.
The Government are clear that engineering construction is integral to achieving the objectives set out in the “Powering Up Britain” strategy announced in March. However, the industry will need to continue to increase the volume of skilled workers coming into the industry in order to deliver on the key projects needed to achieve our objectives. That includes, but is not limited to, the retrofitting of industrial sites with carbon capture and hydrogen production technologies; the further expansion of offshore wind; and increasing our plans for the deployment of civil nuclear to provide up to 25% of our projected electricity demand by 2050, as envisaged in last year’s “British Energy Security Strategy”. That is where the work of the ECITB is critical. Over the 2023 to 2025 strategy period, the ECITB has committed to allocate up to 48% of its grant funding on new entrants, while the remaining 52% will support the upskilling of existing workers. That is vital to boosting the number of workers entering the industry and gaining the requisite skills required by employers.
Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)
In principle, I welcome the motion that my right hon. Friend is putting forward, as we need to improve skills in all sorts of areas. However, I note that the levy will now raise about £30 million a year. Is my right hon. Friend sure that that amount will not damage the very industries it is meant to help?
Robert Halfon
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. Far from damaging the industry, it will actually help the industry, because that £30 million ensures grants, scholarships, training opportunities and skills for all these key industries in engineering construction. I would actually say that that money is a good thing. Do not forget, by the way, that 87% of the members of the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board voted in favour. No one is imposing this on anyone; they voted in favour of the levy.
The draft order will enable the ECITB to raise and collect a levy on employers, as I just described, in the engineering construction industry. It uses the levy to provide targeted training grants to employers to drive up skill levels and incentivise training that would otherwise not take place. The strategy has a clear focus on tackling the shortfall in the number of skilled workers essential to the construction of planned infrastructure projects, including supporting apprenticeships and building on alternative entry programmes such as the ECITB’s scholarship programme and skills bootcamps, as well as upskilling and reskilling programmes for existing workers and those in the allied industries.
The levy will support strategic initiatives to help maintain and develop vital skills in the industry and create a pipeline of skilled workers. Indeed, the ECITB’s strategy has already identified key drivers for change facing the engineering construction industry over the coming decade. Among them is the need to attract more new entrants to replace an ageing workforce and meet demand growth. As part of National Apprenticeship Week in 2017, I took a tour of Hinkley Point C and saw at first hand the work being undertaken to produce a skilled workforce. The ECITB is continuing that work to develop a programme in partnership with EDF to take up to 2,000 unskilled learners through training. Individuals start at a general operative level, with the potential to progress to more skilled roles—for example, in electrical disciplines—with further training. The partnership with industry on skills will give people from all backgrounds a chance to succeed while contributing to the longer-term energy security of the nation.
Before I turn to the details of the draft order, I will highlight that the Department for Education has launched a review of both industry training boards. The review is part of a wider programme across Government to ensure that arm’s length bodies remain effective. Mark Farmer, the CEO and founding director of Cast consultancy, has been appointed to lead the review, which will run until late 2023.
I will turn to the details of the draft order to outline how it will raise the levy. This order is being made to give effect to the levy proposals submitted by the ECITB. Legislation requires the order to set a minimum threshold so as to exempt employers with a small number of employees from the levy. That threshold is set by reference to the annual wage bill of employers. The order is subject to the affirmative procedure and must therefore actively be approved by both Houses before it becomes law. The previous Order, the Industrial Training Levy (Engineering Construction Industry Training Board) Order 2020, introduced a phased increase to levy rates payable by off-site employees while maintaining the same levy rates for on-site employees across its three levy periods. This three-year levy order seeks to maintain the levy rates prescribed for the third phase of the 2020 order currently in place for each of the next three levy periods and for both off-site and on-site employees. Those rates are 0.33% of the earnings paid by employers to off-site employees and 1.2% of the earnings paid by employers to on-site employees for businesses liable to pay the levy.
The ECITB recognises the budgetary pressures on small businesses, which is why this order seeks to retain the current exemption thresholds. Engineering construction employers with an annual wage bill of less than £1 million for off-site employees will not pay any levy. Employers with an average wage bill of less than £275,000 for on-site employees will also be exempted from paying the levy. It is important to note that these exemptions do not stop employers from accessing the same ECITB support available to levy-paying employers. It is projected that approximately 18% of all employers in scope of the levy will be exempt from paying it.
The ECITB has consulted industry on the levy proposals via the consensus process required under the Industrial Training Act 1982. Consensus is achieved by satisfying two requirements: both the majority of employers likely to pay the levy and those employers who together are likely to pay more than half of the aggregate levy raised must agree that the levy proposals are necessary to encourage adequate training. Both requirements were overwhelmingly satisfied, with 85% of employers in scope of paying the levy and who between them are likely to pay 97% of the aggregate levy being supportive of the proposals of the ECITB. I am delighted to say that that is a significant increase from 2019, achieving a 10% increase for both requirements. The draft order has significant industry support, and it will enable the ECITB to carry out its vital training responsibilities. I commend the draft order to the Committee.
Robert Halfon
I am grateful to the shadow Minister for his response. I will start by saying that I fundamentally disagree, as he would expect, with Labour’s proposals to dilute the apprenticeship levy. It would halve the number of apprenticeships because businesses would be using the levy for skills rather than apprenticeships, and the apprenticeship levy does what it says on the tin. It is trying to build an apprenticeship nation. He talked about the budget, but he will know that 99.6% of the apprenticeship budget, which includes the levy that is set by the Treasury, was used over the past year.
The shadow Minister quoted one company that had questions about the levy, but if I had longer, I could give him a range of quotes from companies that are working brilliantly with the levy, such as Amazon, Google and Virgin Atlantic, which recently spoke at the skills conference about how beneficial the levy was to them.
It is worth noting that our engineering manufacturing apprenticeships were up by 24% over the past year. Construction apprenticeships were up 31% over the past year. He talks about paying a the ECITB levy and the apprenticeship levy, but they are very different. They have very different roles. The apprenticeship levy, as I said, is a Ronseal levy—it does what it says on the tin—while the ECITB levy is for used for all kinds of skills training for existing employees, for grants, and for scholarships.
On affordability, I just need to clarify what I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield—he is newly knighted, so many congratulations to him; it is much deserved.
Robert Halfon
I declare an interest in that I used to work for him as a junior researcher many, many moons ago in my younger days, so I am very proud of what my former boss has achieved.
Some 85% of employers in scope of paying the levy, that are likely to pay 97% of the aggregate levy between them, supported the proposal. They will know whether they can afford it, and they have voted for it in vast numbers. It is not for me to question the businesses that voted for the levy; it is up to them to decide whether they want to pay it. As I said, the ECITB levy is very different from the apprenticeship levy.
On BTECs, I discussed this with the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins), the other shadow skills spokesman, in the estimates debate last week. We are proud about our move towards T-levels, which are going to be world-beating qualifications. We have T-levels in engineering and in construction. As the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington knows, we have had reviews of BTECs and alternative qualifications, and those reviews are continuing. We are getting rid of those alternative qualifications that either have very low uptake or poor outcomes—outcomes that we do not think are good enough or that significantly overlap with T-levels.
However, there is nothing to stop employers getting together to design new qualifications—all our new qualifications are employer-led—that are much more suited for the 21st century and, more importantly, more suited for people getting good outcomes. The whole purpose is to move to T-levels, and we are creating a T-level pipeline of engineering, construction, higher technical qualifications being taught in over 70 institutions up and down the country. That will be expanded.
We are spending £300 million on new institutes of technology—21 across the country. There is the state-of-the-art Rolls-Royce skills institutions in collaboration between FE and higher education, teaching HTQs and degree apprenticeships as well. Then separate to all that—this is again why Labour’s proposal for a skills levy to dilute the apprenticeship levy is wrong—we already are spending billions of pounds on skills, on bootcamps, on the Multiply maths programme, and on the higher technical qualifications that I that I mentioned, including 400 free level-3 courses that millions of people are doing across our country. We will have 60,000 people doing boot camps by 2025. We are doing a huge amount of work on skills and a huge amount of work on apprenticeships, ensuring quality standards, with over half of the 670 in science, technology, engineering and maths. We are doing everything possible to ensure that we are on the right path for skills
In conclusion, I thank the Committee for today’s debate. I reiterate that if the levy were to cease, there would likely be a serious deterioration in the quality of training, creating a deficiency in skill levels and capacity and, crucially, leaving the sector unable to deliver key projects vital to the UK’s economic growth. However, it is not solely up to the levy order to address these issues, our Government continues to be on the front foot, which is why we are building a skills system that is employer-focused, high-quality, fit for the future, and flexible enough to lead to more people completing high-quality courses that meet employers’ needs.
I should also mention the T-level transition year, which is preparing people for our state-of-the-art vocational technical qualifications. Our skills reforms will help to create more routes into skilled employment in sectors the economy needs, such as engineering, digital, clean energy, and manufacturing, so more people can secure well-paid jobs in their local areas. That includes supporting more people to complete an apprenticeship or HTQ, rolling out more T-levels, and establishing our network of 21 institutes of technology. We are also expanding our skills bootcamps and free courses for jobs programme. This enhanced offer for adults will complement apprenticeships.
Question put and agreed to.
National Colleges
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 4 months ago)
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The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
Today I have laid before the House, a departmental minute giving notice of a contingent liability in respect of Ada National College for Digital Skills.
The proposal will be reported as a contingent liability in line with the HM Treasury contingent liability framework and managed in accordance with managing public money (MPM).
As the forerunner of the institutes of technology, the national college programme established bespoke institutions to meet the skills gaps identified by employers.
Ada, the National College for Digital Skills, has played an essential role in establishing industry support and collaboration to deliver high quality education and build a strong reputation that will be hard to replace.
I am pleased to announce that work has commenced to relocate the college to the former Sir Simon Milton UTC building in Westminster. DFE is fully supporting this move and would like to thank the Greater London Authority for the role it has played in ensuring that Ada will thrive and continue to provide quality skills education at all levels.
HM Treasury has approved the proposal. A full departmental minute has been laid in the House of Commons providing more detail on this contingent liability.
[HCWS919]
Oral Answers to Questions
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Mrs Flick Drummond (Meon Valley) (Con)
The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
To complement our reformed, more rigorous GCSEs, we are ensuring that high-quality vocational and technical qualifications are available. We have introduced new technical awards at key stage 4 in engineering, technology and many other subjects, and we have our own prestigious T-level offerings for those from 16 years old onwards.
Rob Butler
I am very proud to have Aylesbury University Technical College in my constituency. It provides excellent technical education for young students on a specialist pathway, but not everywhere has those specialist schools. As such, a proposal has been made to my right hon. Friend’s Department to introduce UTC-style courses in mainstream schools for some pupils who are perhaps better suited to that type of education at key stage 4. What progress has the Department made in assessing the feasibility of such courses, which would provide the qualifications, employment skills and work experience that are so important to today’s economy?
Robert Halfon
My hon. Friend is a champion of UTCs, and he knows that they are equipping students with the skills that employers need. I congratulate Aylesbury UTC on the new health and social care suite it is opening later this month. As he mentions, Baker Dearing Educational Trust has proposed a pilot for a technical curriculum in a small number of existing schools, and the Department will take a decision on that shortly.
Mrs Drummond
Students in my Meon Valley constituency who want to go to a university technical college can apply only to the excellent but oversubscribed one in Portsmouth. I am supporting the Portsmouth UTC in its bid to expand into Southampton, which will increase the numbers who are able to take advantage of this excellent education route and give choice to young people in my constituency. Can my right hon. Friend confirm when his Department will announce support for the next round of UTCs?
Robert Halfon
My hon. Friend is a champion of skills, and she is right that UTCs, such as the outstanding Portsmouth UTC, are providing students with skills that will lead to rewarding technical careers. The Department is carefully assessing the free schools applications received against the published criteria and intends to announce the successful proposals before the summer. It is worth mentioning that UTCs have high destination outcomes at key stage 5, especially into apprenticeships.
Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)
Darren Henry (Broxtowe) (Con)
The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
Preventing tragic deaths by suicide is a priority for the Government. Our approach to improving mental health outcomes and reducing suicides is focused on three pillars: funding and resourcing vital services; spreading and implementing best practice and clear responsibilities for higher education providers; and protection for students.
Darren Henry
I have been contacted by many of my constituents in Broxtowe regarding a campaign to establish a duty of care for universities towards their students’ mental health. Suicide is currently the biggest killer of people under 35 in the UK. Will the Minister ensure that we are prioritising mental health support and lay out what the Department is doing to work with universities so that such help is provided? We must prioritise mental health, and we must do so now.
Robert Halfon
My hon. Friend is a huge champion of mental health in his constituency. Based on my previous answer to him, we are giving the Office for Students £15 million to help universities with mental health support. We have asked universities to sign up to the mental health charter by September 2024. We have a new student implementation taskforce to spread best practice, which is reporting on its first stage by the end of the year. We are also commissioning a national independent review of student suicides.
Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)
Ms Anum Qaisar (Airdrie and Shotts) (SNP)
The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
The hon. Lady will be pleased to know that male graduates earn more than £130,000 over their lifetime and female graduates £100,000, so graduates are coming out of university with good wages, and we know that more disadvantaged students are going to university than ever before.
Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)
Robert Halfon
Just to be clear on BTECs, many BTECs will remain and people will be able to do them with A-levels. We are getting rid of BTECs that either have low outcomes, significantly overlap with the T-level, or have very low uptake. We have also introduced the T-level transition year so that people who want to prepare for T-levels are able to do so.
Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)
Robert Halfon
I thank my right hon. Friend for his kind remarks. We have already introduced flexibilities with the apprenticeship levy. As I know how deeply concerned he is about the hospitality industry, I can tell him that I have visited Greene King and seen how brilliantly it uses the levy to employ hundreds of apprentices. Of course, where we can, we will work to ensure that this carries on across the hospitality industry, which he so ably represents.
Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)
Last year, a survey by the National Union of Students found that the mental health of 90% of students had been negatively impacted by the rising cost of living, with students worrying about paying bills and paying for food. The Government have been failing students so far, so what will the Minister do about it?
Robert Halfon
The hon. Lady will be pleased to know that we increased the grant to the Office for Students by £50 million to £276 million. That grant goes to help disadvantaged students. We increased the maintenance loan and grant by 2.8%. We have energy rebates for students who live in private accommodation as well. We are doing everything possible to help students with the cost of living, but being fair to the taxpayer as well.
Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)
Lia Nici (Great Grimsby) (Con)
I have constituents who have been studying at the University of Lincoln for the last three years, but the classification of their degree and their graduation are being prevented because lecturers who are union members are boycotting marking their final dissertations. Can my right hon. Friend advise me and my constituents of what they should do to push through and get the qualifications that they have worked so hard for?
Robert Halfon
My hon. Friend is right that students should get their papers marked. I have been discussing these issues with Universities UK, which says that they will affect a minority of students, and a lot of universities are ensuring alternative markers. Students have recourse to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator if they feel they are not getting the service that they have paid for with their student loan.
Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)
On Saturday, I attended an inspiring conference hosted by Bootham Quaker School, where about 120 year 12 students from across the world had come together to determine the purpose and future of education. Does the Secretary of State agree with them that we need a renewed vision for education, taking into account what education achieves for communities, countries and the planet we share, rather than just its personal benefits?
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
The Glasgow science festival has just completed its 17th year communicating research and inspiring young people, and older people, in venues across Glasgow. Will the Minister congratulate Dr Deborah McNeil for her work in promoting this brilliant festival? It is an example of how young people and academics in science can be brought together.
Robert Halfon
I am delighted to congratulate the science festival and the individual the hon. Lady mentions. We need more such science festivals across the United Kingdom; I would be very interested to learn more about that science festival and how we can spread such festivals across our country.
Further Education Capital Funding
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
Higher technical qualifications (HTQs) are a key part of our skills reforms, addressing skills shortages and employer demand. We are now approaching the end of the first year of delivery, which has seen over 70 providers across the country able to offer 31 digital HTQs, and more qualifications are being taught from this September in construction and in health and science. Today, the Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Gillian Keegan), and I will be joining providers, employers, learners and others to celebrate these successes.
This Government are committed to the success of HTQs, providing £70 million of funding to help providers build their capacity to deliver excellent higher technical training. We are also investing £300 million in prestigious, employer-led institutes of technology, which will further support the teaching of HTQs.
Building on this, I am pleased to announce the launch of a second round of the higher technical education skills injection fund (SIF), which will provide up to £48 million of funding to support providers in delivering HTQs in occupational areas including digital, engineering and manufacturing, and protective services in the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years.
The SIF offers both capital and resource funding, supporting providers to purchase industry-standard specialised equipment, market their qualifications, upskill staff, develop their curriculum, and more. This will further support the growth of high-quality level 4 and 5 provision that meets the growing employer demand for higher technical skills, helping raise productivity and unlock potential.
Details of the SIF, including how providers can apply and details of webinars to provider support and guidance, will be published on www.gov.uk today.
I am pleased also to announce that details of the 66 qualifications that have been approved as HTQs in the latest cycle will be published on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s website today.
I would also like to use this statement to thank those employers and providers who have already helped develop and deliver HTQs, and to encourage others to do so. Working together, we can ensure that more people climb the ladder of opportunity to long-term job security and prosperity.
More information about HTQs is available from
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-technical-qualification-overview
[HCWS826]
Education
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Robert Halfon
I can also confirm that the constituency of the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) will be getting £1.8 million.
[Official Report, 23 May 2023, Vol. 733, c. 257.]
Letter of correction from the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, the right hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon):
An error has been identified in my closing speech.
The correct information should have been:
Robert Halfon
I can also confirm that Gateshead local authority, where the constituency of the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) is, will be getting £1.8 million.
Higher Technical Education
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
Higher technical qualifications (HTQs) are a key part of our skills reforms to address skills shortages and employer demand. We are now approaching the end of the first year of delivery, which has seen over 70 providers across the country able to offer 31 digital HTQs, and more qualifications are being taught from this September in construction and health and science. Today, the Secretary of State and I will be joining providers, employers, learners and others to celebrate these successes.
This Government are committed to the success of HTQs, providing £70 million of funding to help providers build their capacity to deliver excellent higher technical training. We are also investing £300 million in prestigious, employer-led Institutes of Technology, which will further support the teaching of HTQs.
Building on this, I am pleased to announce the launch of a second round of the higher technical education skills injection fund (SIF), which will provide up to £48 million of funding to support providers in delivering HTQs in occupational areas including digital, engineering and manufacturing, and protective services in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years.
The SIF offers both capital and resource funding, supporting providers to purchase industry-standard specialised equipment, market their qualifications, upskill staff, develop their curriculum and more. This will further support the growth of high-quality level 4 and 5 provision that meets the growing employer demand for higher technical skills, helping to raise productivity and unlock potential.
Details of the SIF, including how providers can apply and details of webinars to provide support and guidance, will be published on gov.uk today.
I am pleased to also announce that details of the 66 qualifications which have been approved as HTQs in the latest cycle will be published on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s website today.
I would also like to use this statement to thank those employers and providers who have already helped develop and deliver HTQs, and encourage others to do so. Working together we can ensure more people climb the ladder of opportunity to long-term job security and prosperity.
More information about HTQs is available from
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-technical-qualification-overview
[HCWS827]
Higher Education Students: Statutory Duty of Care
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Robert. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Nick Fletcher) for the way he opened the debate. He fairly set out all points of view on this very difficult issue. It has been a deeply emotional debate; we have heard heartrending testimonies from MPs on behalf of their constituents. I hope my remarks will set out some real things that the Government are doing. I will be limited in responding to everyone, because I want to be able to speak to the families here today, and to those watching on BBC Parliament or the internet. I thank Lee Fryatt and the LEARN Network for starting the petition, and all the families. They are rightly calling for students to be better protected when they leave home for the first time for university. The hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) said that the selflessness of the families has been clear. He is exactly right. Theirs is a very important description of what is happening, and what everyone has been through.
I know that many people listening to the debate have had painful first-hand experience of losing bright, capable young people to suicide, and it was an honour to attend the parliamentary event last month to personally hear their testimonies. We owe it to the memories of those young people to collectively take strong and effective action that prevents further tragedies. That, above all else, should be what the Government deliver for them, and since being appointed the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education by the Prime Minister last year I have made it a priority for my Department.
Let me set out what our approach will be. The first point is funding and resourcing vital services. I know that that is a concern of the shadow spokesman, the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western). I welcome the constructive way in which he set out his argument. The second point is spreading and implementing best practice, and the third is having clear responsibilities for providers and protection for students.
First, to deliver the determined interventions that are needed we absolutely need the right funding. That is why we invested £3.6 million via the Office for Students to establish Student Space. Since its launch in 2020, nearly 300,000 students across the country have benefited from the free mental health resources and confidential support that that online service offers. We have also asked the Office for Students to distribute £15 million this academic year so that support can be targeted towards students starting university for the first time. That funding will also enable effective partnerships between providers and local NHS services so that students can better navigate the pathways for mental health provision. Those NHS mental health services are receiving record funding through the NHS long-term plan. By March 2024, an additional £2.3 billion per year above 2018-19 levels will go into mental health services in England. As a result, a further 345,000 people under the age of 25 will get the mental health support that they need.
A number of Members talked about the mental health charter, especially the hon. Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield). It has been acknowledged that the university sector has made some important strides in recent years to develop clear mental health support frameworks, working with charities and experts. The suicide-safer universities framework provides guidance on suicide prevention for university leaders. There is also now postvention best practice on providing compassionate and timely support after a suspected suicide. Building on those foundations, Student Minds developed the university mental health charter, setting out the principles for a whole-university approach to mental health. That includes the need for mental health training relevant to the role of individual staff—an issue that I know the LEARN Network has raised.
The associated charter programme is not a panacea but a process—one that enables continuous improvement and that has already raised standards in the sector. As has been mentioned, I have written to ask all universities to sign up to the mental health charter programme by September 2024. It is right that just 61 universities are already part of the charter programme. I know that that concerns my hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Mrs Grant), and I agree that it is time the rest got onboard. It is time that parents and students have the confidence that a safety net is in place, whatever university they have chosen to study at.
Providers that do not have degree-awarding powers are not eligible but can still follow the charter’s principles, and there is an Association of Colleges mental health and wellbeing charter for colleges. My hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Angela Richardson) talked about parity of esteem, and about how FE is doing these things and universities should be doing them as well. She is absolutely right. I thank all the further education colleges and providers for all they do to support learners with mental health difficulties.
I am confident that higher education can meet this challenge. However, I have made it clear that if the response is not satisfactory, I will go further and ask the Office for Students to look at the merits of a new registration condition on mental health. To those who fear it would not have the right impact, I want to be clear that any breach of such a condition would be subject to the same sanctions as breaches of other registration conditions.
I have been asked about the student support champion. For the record, I should declare that I was made an honorary professor of Nottingham Trent University when I was Chair of the Education Committee. We appointed Professor Edward Peck as the first ever student support champion in 2022, and I am pleased that he is in the Public Gallery to observe this debate. I am indebted to him for all his support and wise advice.
Professor Peck has worked with the LEARN Network to identify four more areas where providers should go further to protect students’ mental health. First, providers need to identify students at risk early, with pastoral care well before they reach crisis point. UCAS has worked hard to improve disclosure of mental health conditions by breaking down stigma and promoting the benefits of having reasonable adjustments in place from day one. Providers are already finding effective ways to identify students who have not yet disclosed but need help, such as Northumbria’s innovative use of student data analytics. We need to waste no time in rolling this out, but there needs to be a clear action plan, backed by the sector and students, to ensure that it happens.
Secondly, higher education needs to get behind a university student commitment on more personalised and compassionate academic processes, so that students are dealt with sensitively when they face course dismissal or receive difficult assignment results. The LEARN Network has raised the importance of that issue, and has asked for students to be treated fairly. Under the commitment, providers would review their procedures to ensure that the circumstances of individual students are considered, including their mental health.
Thirdly, lessons from existing reviews of student suicides need to be shared more widely, which I know some bereaved parents have been calling for. To ensure that that happens, we will commission an independent organisation to carry out a national review of university student deaths. That is the best way to ensure that local reviews are done rigorously, to learn from these tragic events and to prevent lives from being lost. My right hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice) talked about the suicide data issue. I will come on to what we are doing. I mentioned Professor Peck and the review, and it is perhaps something we could look at in relation to that. As my right hon. Friend knows, the Office for National Statistics has published national data on student suicides.
I know that there are bereaved families listening today who would particularly like to see Universities UK guidance on sharing information with trusted contacts effectively adopted. That has been raised by a number of Members. Of course, where possible, information should be shared with parents. There may be circumstances where students do not want to share. They may be adults; there may be issues with family breakdowns or personal issues that mean they do not want to share with parents, but having a point of contact is exactly right.
As of May 2023, a Universities UK survey showed that 93% of members have adopted or are adopting the guidance on information sharing, so we should start to see a change in practice. Ensuring that best practice on information sharing with trusted contacts, whether parents or otherwise, is fully implemented will be a key focus of the implementation taskforce. The taskforce will set targets for improvement, which I will come on to.
As I have mentioned, Professor Peck is chairing a new higher education mental health implementation taskforce, with its outputs reporting directly to me. It will include bereaved parents, students, mental health experts, charities and sector representatives. Of course, where I am able to involve the shadow Minister, I will be pleased to do so.
Robert Halfon
I will in a second, but I have some very important stuff for families to get through.
By the end of this year, the taskforce will be asked to put in place an interim plan for better early identification of students at risk and for delivering the university student commitment as well as a set of strong, clear targets for improvements by providers. By May 2024, it should follow with a final report outlining the next steps, including how the sector will publicly report on the progress measures over the coming years.
Wendy Chamberlain
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. We are talking about a lot of stakeholders, and we are also talking about UK bodies. I am very keen to understand what engagement the Minister is having with the Scottish and Welsh Governments. All of us, wherever we represent, want to ensure that we prevent student suicides.
Robert Halfon
Although education is a devolved issue, as the hon. Lady knows, I will of course work with the devolved authorities—absolutely. It is absolutely essential to learn from each other. The Labour party spokesman talked about Wales, for example. There is a lot that we can learn from.
Turning to the statutory duty of care called for by the petition, I absolutely get the arguments and hope I have demonstrated that I share the petitioners’ fundamental aims, which are to protect those who study at university and to prevent future tragedies. If creating a duty for higher education providers towards their students was the right way to achieve that, it would absolutely have the Government’s backing. There are reasons why we believe that it may not be the most effective intervention.
My right hon. Friend the Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse) expressed some important views about bureaucracy. PAPYRUS, the suicide prevention and mental health charity, says that one of the risks of the shift from “should” to “must” is that we already see, most prevalently, a rescinding of energy. My worry is that if we introduce a framework that says “must”, people will recoil even further and avoid any natural intervention that they would ordinarily make. I am worried that the thing that he wants to happen might create a one-size-fits-all approach, when we need to look at different ways of intervening for mental health.
First, the Government’s view, shared by independent legal experts, is that a general duty of care already exists in common law as part of the law of negligence. That means higher education providers must deliver educational and pastoral services to the standard of an ordinarily competent institution. Recent judgments failed to find a duty of care in the circumstances of those particular cases. However, I am aware that the decision in Abrahart v. University of Bristol is being appealed in the High Court, so I have been advised that I am not able to comment further at this stage, although we will look at the issue carefully.
Secondly, there are already further protections for students in law. In particular, the Equality Act 2010 protects students with disabilities, including mental health conditions, from unlawful discrimination and harassment. It also provides reasonable adjustments where such students would otherwise be put at a substantial disadvantage. Providers must also fully observe health and safety obligations and requirements to safeguard vulnerable adults, as well as contractual obligations.
Thirdly, setting aside the legal position, we do not believe that the most effective way to improve student mental health is to introduce new legislative requirements when the sector is making progress on a voluntary basis. Although the sector absolutely could and should do more—I have tried to set out some of the things that we are calling for—providers are still innovating and improving, and there is not yet consensus on which interventions are most effective. That is the point I am trying to explain to my right hon. Friend the Member for North West Hampshire. It is no excuse for not doing anything or for inaction, but it does mean that the one-size-fits-all approach may not achieve the best results and support for students suffering from mental health difficulties, which is what we all want to see. As I say, we have other pieces of legislation already in place on equalities and on negligence.
I expect universities, as organisations with an obligation to do the right thing for their students, to rise to the challenge that we have set for them today. As I have mentioned, if we do not see the expected improvements I will not hesitate to ask the Office for Students to introduce a new registration condition on mental health. It is vital that the whole sector takes this call to action seriously.
I hope that I have been clear that we are not standing by and letting things continue as they are. I am determined that all universities will sign up to the mental health charter and that Professor Peck’s proposals will be implemented. I will reiterate those aims when I host a mental health roundtable for sector leaders. We will also continue to monitor how effectively the existing law is being applied.
I want to say one thing to everybody who has talked about the need for more legislation—my hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald cares passionately about this, and I thank her for all that she has done for her constituents. To be absolutely clear, I am not closing the door on future legislation if that is what is required to make students safer. For now, we are seeking actively to bolster every aspect of the support systems that are available to students. Absolutely no one should take up the shining opportunity of a university place—it is meant to be one of the greatest times of one’s life—only to find that poor mental health support prevents them from getting the most out of the experience and the fulfilment of attending that university.
Sir Robert Syms (in the Chair)
I call Nick Fletcher to make some brief final comments.
Level 3 Qualifications Review
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 6 months ago)
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The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
Today I am announcing an update to phase 2 of the Government’s reforms to post-16 qualifications at level 3 in England, removing funding from technical qualifications that overlap with T-levels. We are publishing a provisional list, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wave-3-t-levels-overlapping-qualifications of 92 technical qualifications that have been assessed to overlap with wave 3 T-levels in business and administration; engineering and manufacturing; and finance and accounting.
The assessment of overlapping qualifications is carried out by independent assessors, who carry out in-depth reviews of qualifications. This is the same process as for waves 1 and 2 T-levels. Subject to the outcomes of an appeal process which gives awarding organisations the opportunity to contest a qualification’s placement on the list, we will withdraw public funding at 16 to 19 from these qualifications for new starts from August 2025. On the provisional list of 92 qualifications, we know there were 36 qualifications which had no enrolments and a further 24 which had fewer than 100 enrolments in 2020-21 academic year, highlighting the need to streamline the qualifications system. The final overlap list for wave 3 T-levels will be published in the autumn.
We are reforming technical qualifications at level 3 as the current qualifications do not consistently progress young people to related employment. In the future technical qualifications will be based on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s occupational standards, which have been designed by employers and which set out the knowledge, skills, and behaviours that employers need.
Removing funding from technical qualifications which overlap with T-levels will ensure young people can feel confident that they are studying technical qualifications which will prepare them for jobs in their chosen occupation. The breadth and depth of T-levels is unmatched, giving students a thorough understanding of the sector and the skills needed to work in specific occupations, as well as an industry placement which gives them valuable experience.
T-levels are being scaled up in a managed roll-out, with 16 subjects currently available at over 160 providers across England, with 24 T-levels in total planned by 2025. We are continuing to build on the success of T-levels and have put in place extra measures to support providers, employers and students. We are providing a 10% uplift in funding to providers delivering T-levels for the 2023-24 academic year, a new £12 million employer support fund and extra funding for providers to provide careers guidance on T-levels. The Gatsby Charitable Foundation is also supporting providers as they make the move to T-levels. This includes a new technical education networks programme to offer subject-specific support for T-level teaching, and providing grant funding to the Baker Dearing Educational Trust to support UTCs in their transition to T-levels.
We are supporting more learners to access T-levels through the T-level transition programme. This is a high-quality, holistic study programme for learners who would benefit from the additional study time and preparation that it will give them before they start their T-level. Learners on the programme develop a broad range of knowledge, skills and behaviours to prepare them for T-levels. This includes the national technical content developed for the programme, through which learners gain industry-relevant technical knowledge and practical skills aligned to T-levels, as well as gaining valuable work experience and preparation for the workplace, English, maths and digital skills, developing their study skills and wider personal development. In total, close to 9,800 students have enrolled on the programme in the first three years, since 2020, and provisional estimates show that about 49% of the first cohort subsequently progressed onto level 3 or higher outcomes.
The removal of public funding from qualifications that overlap with T-levels at 16 to 19 forms a small part of our wider technical education reforms. Our new integrated funding approval process means that from 2025, awarding organisations can develop and submit new technical qualifications for funding, which are based on occupational standards approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.
Awarding organisations with qualifications on the wave 3 overlap list have been notified, as have the Federation of Awarding Bodies and Joint Council for Qualifications.
[HCWS808]
Safety of School Buildings
Robert Halfon Excerpts(1 year, 6 months ago)
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The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)
I welcome the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Government. Of course, I start by thanking all the teachers and support staff in schools in my constituency of Harlow and across the country who do so much to look after our children and learners.
I want to thank the many hon. Members who have spoken today, and comment on some of the things that have been said. The hon. Member for Sunderland Central (Julie Elliott) talked about her school, Grange Park; I am sure that one of the schools Ministers will be pleased to meet her to discuss it, and I am sure she will be pleased that she is getting £1.5 million in capital for her schools in 2023-24. As always, the Chair of the Education Select Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr Walker)—who is no longer in his place—was very thoughtful. He acknowledged what the Minister for Schools, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Nick Gibb) has said: that the publication of this data will come by the summer recess. He also mentioned the benefit of funding for schools that he has seen in his own constituency.
The hon. Member for Wakefield (Simon Lightwood) will be pleased to know that there is a capital allocation of £2.7 million to invest in his schools, hopefully including the schools that he mentioned. My hon. Friend the Member for Wantage (David Johnston) highlighted the significant amount invested in his constituency area, but also reminded us that it was the Labour party’s manifesto at the last election to abolish Ofsted and SATs. He rightly reminded us of the work we have done to improve reading, thanks to all the hard work of the Schools Minister. The hon. Member for Bedford (Mohammad Yasin) talked about capital funding in his area; he will be pleased to know that there is £1.8 million in 2023-24 to invest in maintained schools.
My hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich West (Shaun Bailey) highlighted the significant amount of capital funding in a number of schools in his constituency, and rightly talked about the problems of private finance initiatives under the last Government. The hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake) talked about her constituent. I wish her constituent better, and I am sorry—
Shaun Bailey
I do appreciate that—my intervention is a very quick one. We have been talking about transparency today. Would my right hon. Friend, in his good office, perhaps look at ways in which we could examine the impact that PFI has had on schools’ ability to keep up capital maintenance? That might be something that he and I could have a discussion about after the debate.
Robert Halfon
I am sure that that point has been heard by the Schools Minister and by the school system Minister, who is watching the debate. I thank my hon. Friend for his question.
My hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French) talked about all the funding that has gone to four successful bids in his constituency and a previous seven bids, which shows that money is going to our schools. The hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Cat Smith) talked about what is happening in our schools; I gently remind her that whatever has gone on in terms of capital funding, 68% of schools were good or outstanding in 2010, and now 88% of schools are. The hon. Member for Luton South (Rachel Hopkins) will be pleased to know that there is more capital funding—£3.6 million, I think—going to her schools. She talked about the money that went in previously; it is worth noting to Members who have talked about that issue that the previous Building Schools for the Future programme was seen by the James review as bureaucratic and not as effective as it could have been.
In answer to the question asked by my former colleague on the Education Select Committee, the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Kim Johnson), those schools will be free schools. The hon. Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) will be getting £3.9 million in capital funding in his area for 2023-24, and the issue of asbestos was dealt with very nobly by my right hon. Friend the Schools Minister. The hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson), the Lib Dem spokesman, talked about our capital spending programme. I think it is important to remind people that—as has been said—we have allocated over £15 billion for improving the condition of the school estate since 2015, including £1.8 billion this financial year. In addition, the school rebuilding programme will transform the condition of buildings at 500 schools; 400 schools are now in the programme, including 239 announced in December 2022. We have allocated a further £500 million in capital funding in 2022-23, so the funding is there, the survey and the data are there, and there is guidance, a toolkit and support for schools as well.
Robert Halfon
I just want to finish this point. I spoke to the Schools Minister as the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) was speaking, and I am sure that he or the school system Minister will be pleased to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss the issues with his school that he raised.
The hon. Member for Easington (Grahame Morris) talked about problems with a fairly new school. Again, the Schools Minister will have heard him, and I am sure there can be a meeting or some correspondence to discuss that important issue.
I can also confirm that the constituency of the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) will be getting £1.8 million. Turning to—[Interruption.] Do not worry; I have not forgotten the hon. Member for Twickenham. The hon. Member for Blaydon also asked about the CDC condition grades, and the number of D grades quoted is correct, but they make up less than 1% of all condition grades, with the vast majority being As and Bs.
Munira Wilson
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. During the Schools Minister’s opening speech, I asked whether he would commit to publishing the details of the 39 schools that have partially or fully closed since 2019 because they were deemed unsafe. He suggested that I was interfering with the build-up of anticipation in his speech, but he reached the crescendo without giving us an answer. I therefore ask the Skills Minister to commit to publishing the details of those 39 schools that have shut.
Robert Halfon
My right hon. Friend the Schools Minister has already made it clear that that information will be published by the summer.
I have tried to answer as many points as possible, and I want to re-emphasise that there are no open areas within school or college buildings where we know of an imminent risk to the safety of pupils and staff. If the Department is made aware of buildings that pose such a risk, immediate action is taken.
Since 2015, as I mentioned a moment ago, over £15 billion—no mean sum—has been spent to improve the condition of school buildings, including the £1.8 billion committed this year, and that spending is informed by consistent data on the condition of schools. As part of that, only yesterday we announced over £450 million in capital funding through the condition improvement fund. This will support over 1,000 projects to improve buildings at academies and other schools, including 23 projects at 16-to-19 academies and sixth-form colleges. That comes on top of the school rebuilding programme, which is meeting our commitment to transform buildings in poor condition at 500 schools and sixth-form colleges, and its predecessor, the priority school building programme.
In my area of skills, we are also investing over £2.8 billion of capital in skills to improve the FE estate, to develop new places in post-16 education, to provide specialist equipment and facilities for T-levels, and to deliver 20 institutes of technology across England. We are meeting our manifesto commitment by investing over £1.5 billion in upgrading and transforming the FE college estate through the FE capital transformation programme. All colleges have had funding through the programme, but we have directed funding towards addressing the worst conditions in the estate.
The Department is working with 16 colleges with some of the worst condition sites in the country to design and deliver their capital projects, and some 77 further projects are being pursued by colleges themselves with grant funding from the programme. I was pleased to announce at the end of March that a further £286 million would be allocated to 181 colleges with remaining poor conditions. Colleges are currently developing their plans for how to most effectively use this funding over the next two years to address condition improvement of their estate. Of course, that comes on top of additional allocations of capital funding provided to colleges in December—£53 million to support capital projects, particularly energy support measures—and £150 million provided in April to support funding gaps resulting from reclassification of the sector.
As mentioned earlier, we take RAAC particularly seriously and are committed to working with the sector to address any safety risk it poses. We are working proactively with responsible bodies to help with identification and management of RAAC across the school estate and have asked them to inform us of any schools and colleges that may have it. We individually follow up every report of a school that has RAAC, sending a technical adviser to verify its presence and assess its condition. If RAAC is confirmed, we then ensure appropriate and rapid action is taken to address any immediate risk, based on professional advice. More broadly, any academy trust or local authority with a serious issue with its buildings that it cannot address from its existing resources can come to the Department. We will work with those schools to find a solution and provide additional support as needed.
As my right hon. Friend the Minister for Schools outlined earlier, we commissioned the condition data collection to provide us with robust evidence for distributing capital funding fairly to where it is most needed. We have shared a report with detailed data on each school with every single school during the programme, as well as with the academy trusts, dioceses and local authorities responsible for those schools. We published the overall findings of the condition data collection two years ago, and we plan to publish more detailed data at school level as soon as possible. Its successor programme, CDC2, is now under way and will complete by 2026. Where our surveyors see issues that cause them concern, they inform the school and the Department. My right hon. Friend and I take these issues extremely seriously. We are monitoring developments and progress constantly.
Andrew Gwynne
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker, is it in order for Members in the No Lobby to be so noisy and disrespectful to the debate in this Chamber?
Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Roger Gale)
I must be going deaf; I did not hear them.
Robert Halfon
As I was saying, the Minister for Schools and I are monitoring developments and progress constantly. Schools and colleges are critical to the country’s economy. We continue to invest in their estates, prioritising safety. That is vital to supporting pupils and students to gain the knowledge and skills they need to provide them with the ladder of opportunity to fulfil their potential, whether through good jobs or additional education.
Question put.